1. DICHOTIC LISTENING In a picnic basket, she had peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate brownies…. cat, large, day, apple, friend, every, select, sandwiches and chocolate brownies In the picnic basket, she had peanut butter book, leaf, roof, sample, always…… In a picnic basket, she had peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate brownies…. cat, large, day, apple, friend, every, select, sandwiches and chocolate brownies In the picnic basket, she had peanut butter book, leaf, roof, sample, always…… In a picnic basket, she had peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate brownies…. cat, large, day, apple, friend, every, select, sandwiches and chocolate brownies In the picnic basket, she had peanut butter book, leaf, roof, sample, always…… In a picnic basket, she had peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate brownies…. cat, large, day, apple, friend, every, select, sandwiches and chocolate brownies In the picnic basket, she had peanut butter book, leaf, roof, sample, always……

2. DICHOTIC LISTENING In the laboratory, dichotic listening is studied by asking people to wear earphones; each ear is presented with different message. Typically, the research participant is asked to shadow the message in one ear, by listening to the message and repeating it after the speaker. In the classic research, people noticed very little about the unattended, second message (Cherry, 1953). Moray (1959) reported that people notice their own name if it is inserted in the unattended message.

3. DICHOTIC LISTENING Wood & Cowan (1995) repeated the research under more controlled conditions than Moray had used, and they found that 35% of the participants recalled hearing their name in the channel that they were supposed to ignore. In some cases, people can follow the meaning of a message in the unintended ear. Treisman (1960) presented two messages to the participants in her study. People were instructed to shadow one message and leave the other message unattended. However, after a few words, the meaningful sentence in the shadowed ear was suddenly interrupted by a string of unrelated words. Simultaneously, that same sentence continued in the “unintended” ear.

4. DICHOTIC LISTENING An illustration of Treisman’s (1960) shadowing study In a picnic basket, she had peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate brownies…. cat, large, day, apple, friend, every, select, sandwiches and chocolate brownies In the picnic basket, she had peanut butter book, leaf, roof, sample, always……

5. DICHOTIC LISTENING Some studies suggest that people can notice the meaning of the unattended message, but other studies suggest they cannot (e.g., Corteen & Wood, 1972; Hirst, 1986; Johnston & Dark, 1986; Wardlaw & Kroll, 1976). The answer probably depends upon task characteristics. Still, meaning is less noticeable than characteristics such as pitch (Alport, 1989). In summary, when people’s auditory attention is divided, they can notice some characteristics of the unattended message, such as the gender of the speaker and whether their own name is mentioned. On the other hand, they may be unaware of whether the unattended message is in English or in a foreign language. Finally, people can sometimes notice the meaning of the unattended message, but in some conditions, they do not.